On Common Ground

This Saturday, I headed up to Unity for the Common Ground Fair with Aimee, Eric, and Bristol.  While it was a bit grey and drizzly, there were plenty of interesting things to brighten up the day and a good time was had by all. And now, I'm going to let the photos do the talking.

[The tag reads: "Turkey-tail Hat for walking in Snowy Firs, with Goose + Goat families depicted, ^plus one Beaver, and the 24 lb. Raccoon who opened and squeezed through the 5½" x 6" chicken door.]

What are your favorite things to do at the fair??

Introducing: Knoll Rib Cowl

As anyone who knows me knows, when it comes to yarn, I have one of the world's smallest stashes. So it is perhaps surprising that this pattern came from the need to knit a yarn that sat in my stash for exactly two years.

Back before I did any spinning myself, I picked up a skein of handpsun from the booth for Enchanted Knoll Farms at the 2008 Common Ground Fair, weeks after I moved back to Maine.

I was in love with this yarn and called it my Rumpelstiltskin yarn, since it looked like straw spun into gold. (It's true name is Gold Dust Woman). I admired the yarn and petted the yarn and could come up with nothing worthy of this yarn.

Fast forward to September 2010. Faced with the need for a simple knit and feeling as if I had neglected this prize yarn for too long. I picked up my needles and tried to find a good stitch pattern for a scarf. My first attempt resulted in something that looked overwhelming 1980s in style, so I frogged, did a garter stitch sample, thought that was too boring and went back to the books.

I flipped through my stitch dictionaries and came across a squishy-looking rib stitch, which I promptly memorized incorrectly, and thus, came up with my own stitch pattern. I'm sure that this was not the first time something like that had happened.

As I neared the end of my then-scarf, I decided that the short length (about four feet long) would work better as a cowl, so I seamed it up, blocked it out, and there you have it.

I think this worked out as a perfect way to display a limited amount of a lovely handspun yarn. I used pretty much every inch of the 200 yards in my skein, but the cowl stretched a lot both ways when blocking, so it could take less if need be.

In case anyone else finds themselves in my predicament (lovely handspun, limited amount, no clue what to do.) I whipped up the pattern last night. You can grab it as a free download, using the link below.

download now

Tour de Fleece: The Finish Line

After checking in with the Tour de Fleece police tonight, it was ruled that yesterday was my last day of le Tour - so here's a round up of everything I worked on since the 3rd.

Rust-Colored Llama from Botanical Shades

• purchased at Common Ground Fair 2009
• during the Tour I.... plied it
• 1.5 oz
• 120 yds
• 2-ply

Purple Llama from Botanical Shades

• purchased at Common Ground Fair 2009
• during the Tour I.... spun (about half of the total fiber) and plied
• 2.1 oz
• 190 yds
• 2-ply

Natural Turquoise from Enchanted Knoll Farms

• purchased at Common Ground Fair 2009
• during the Tour I... spun
• Currently at 1.4oz

I probably won't spin everyday, but I'm in a good grove and I'm loving the turquoise fiber, so I'll try to keep this roll going. And at the rate I'm going, I'll have used up all my fiber by Rhinebeck, so I can pick up a bunch more guilt-free!

Roadtrip: PKOTT at NETA Spa

This Saturday the lovely ladies of Portland Knitters On The Town took a field trip to NETA's Spa, Spin and Knit weekend up in Freeport, where the Hilton Garden and Haraseeket Inns were crawling with Spinners and Knitters from throughout New England.

Many were day trippers like ourselves, but others from New Hampshire and Vermont came to stay for the whole weekend. The Hilton was sold out - primarily to knitters and spinners. It was great to see so many fiber lovers in one place!

There were also a ballroom full of the usual merchants, but being pretty stocked up at the moment, I only purchased a card of beautiful pewter buttons that made me think of a new sweater design almost instantaneously.

With so many spinner around I was inspired to pull out my spindle, which I haven't touched since sometime in late September/Early November, when Christmas and other deadline knitting kicked in.

So while I didn't purchase any yarn, I did come out of the event with some new yarn. Which as Mr. Cleaver accurately described it, "feel like you hair after a day at the beach." It's llama, and yes, it's a bit straw-like. I'm hoping it'll soften up a bit when I wash it (which it seriously needs - so much dye transfer!!), but I'm proud of the thinness and relative evenness of this skein. Inspired, I started spinning it's companion purple fiber last night.

We also made side trips to a BBQ joint and a fabric store. So all in all, it was a good day. :)

Wild Times in New England

As if the Common Ground Fair on Sunday wasn't enough, this Thursday I skipped work an hour early and Mr.Cleaver and I headed to the Cumberland County Fair. There were cute kids on rides (check out the tongue action on this "Biker Chick"):

Fair Food for Dinner:

Prize Winners:

Cute Animals:

4-H Pig Races (worth the price of admission alone):

an International Ox Pull

and sneaking it all in before it started to rain.

With a rainy Saturday, the Mr. and I took a trip over to Westbrook for Candlepin Bowling and $2.25 worth of Pinball:

Roadtrip: Common Ground Fair

It's fall in Maine, which means Fair Season and for the even slightly crunchy granola of us, it means the Common Ground Fair hosted by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. When I went last year, I was unemployed and recently arrived from Chicago. I went because I was told there'd be yarn.

This year I went up as part of a group of seven from my Tuesday night knitting group. We left Portland at 7:30 and even getting slightly lost, managed to avoid the long line of traffic that you get after about 10 am. It was cool when we left, but the weather couldn't have been more perfect. We wandered around the fair for about 6 hours seeing all the sights.

And yes, we bought yarn and fiber. I bought lots of fiber because this is my first fair trip as a spinner. The haul, as displayed below is as follows: Llama fiber from Botanical Shades (Orange on spindle and purple), "fudge sundae" wool-bamboo-silk blend from Pleasant Valley Farm (dark multicolor ball), and wool and sparkle blend from Enchanted Knoll. The sheep sculpture is from Maple Lane Pottery.

I spin now, did I mention that yet?

Mr. Cleaver got me a drop spindle for my birthday and I've be happily leaving tufts of wool all over the sofa since July. But really, we all knew it was just a matter of time, right? I look forward to sharing more bits of fibery/handspun goodness here in the coming months.

My first (grey) and second (white) spinning samples, apx 1.1oz each, wool fiber from the Portland Fiber Gallery and Studio.

Fair Weather: Part I

I have to admit that growing up I hated fair season.  

To me it meant nothing more than dancing on hot concrete stages that were every form of uncomfortable and I never got to do any of the fun stuff, like rides or games - except for once. Of course the piece de resistance of bad fair experiences was in high school when I volunteered to do a "Say No to Drugs" Puppet show, only to arrive at the booth to discover that I'd have to spend all afternoon sitting under a table next to the Vote No on 9 people. Not cool.

Nevertheless, when Maine fair season kicked off last week, I was thrilled and have now gone to not one, but two fairs. Since I took hundreds of photos, I'ma gonna break this up into two posts.

First, Marjorie, the woman who essentially taught me to knit, called and asked if I'd like to go with her to the Common Ground Fair. Run by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardens, this is meant one thing to us knitters: fiber, yarn, and the creatures that wrought it.

We had beautiful warm weather and a fantastic time.

There were pie cones:

Lots of fiber:

 

Spinning (which I really really want to learn, weaving too):

Llamas:

Sheep:

Sheep Herding:

And it wasn't all about knitting-related things, we also saw Native american dancers and drummer, chair makers, basket weavers, and boat builders.

But we did both some some lovely golden yarn from Enchanted Knoll Farms. Because really, it's all about the yarn, right?